The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1887-03-10


Gone of my adventures. Ell ?" began
the hook agent, as the others settled into
their seats more comfortably. "WelI,
about eight years ago I carried . pack Of
novelties, such as you see frequently sx-
hlbited on the street corners and presided
over by sun-burned italian. With an
other man and . young fellow Of eighteen
| travelled through Kansas TO the Colora-
do line, selling and trading oar wares to
the Indians for anything marketable In
the cities. About the time of our arrival
in the western part of Kansas the memo
rable Indian outbreak was terrorixing the
country. From the soath and west came
reports of the terrible outrages perpetra-
ted by the Indians and greasens. Houses
were burned, the inmates were killed in
staDtly or tortured to death aud all the
cattle were driven off and scattered.
You may be sure felt considerable solic-
itude concerning the safety of my little
party, and took extra precautions TO ind
secluded spots when camping. or course,
under these conditions, / deemed it adyis-
able to get out Of the -neighborhood imme-
diately. To do so we found it necessary
to pass through b the country most likely
to be infested by struggling bands of In
dians. Despite the risks we determined
to make the attempt. After long, hard
days tramp we encamped for the night in
one OF those small canyons so prevalent in
western Kansas. 1t was an excellent
place, too. Our backs were effectually
protected by natural cave in the side Of
the bank, the entrance to which was con-
cealed by brush and tall grass. Sam, the
boy of the party, was an unusually bright
young fellow and very familiar with the
tactics of Indian warfare. Just before
lying down noticed him untying q good
sized bundle Of sticks resembling short
broom handles. He placed them In easy
reach and tumbled down to sleep. Ihad
also noticed him fumbling around the
bushes q short time before, but didn't pay
much attention to his actions The other
fellow and myself concluded not to set q
guard, as we were IN such an excellent
place. don't know how long we had
slept when we were awakened by Sam,
shaking us slightly and Whispering:
"' BE quick now, the Indians are get
ting ready to slip in on u.s."
"By this time we were both wide
awake ready with our rifles"
"Listen,' whispered Sam; 'hear the
dirty scamps slipping up. Put down the
rifles. I've got something better
"He handed as each four of the sticks
mentioned, remarking:
"Them's roman candles. Pve got a
pile Of whoppers along, and think we
can scare these scamps clean out of their
hides.'"
az caught the idea in . moment and
strained my ears to listen for further de-
monstrations from the attacking party.
We could hear them creeping here and
there through the bushes, scarcely noise,
but easily distinguished in the silence of
the night.
"Now,' whispered Sam, take two in
each hand I'll light Them
"Suiting the action to the word, he
contrived to light them in rapid success
sion. Then we turned them into the
bushes, and, heavens, what sight was
revealed as the candles flashed. About
fifty Misunderstanding savages and greas-
ers were STOPPING and creeping along
toward US. At the first fash they stopped
as if spell bound. We turned them so
the green and white balls would strike
tucu III IuciI ldCcs. 1no Candles were
tremendous affairs, and eight or ten of
them popping away apparently indepen-
dent of human aid was enough to terror
ize any one. Our assailants wavered
moment, then with terrible yell, bounded
away toward high ground as if the devil
himself was in pursuit. We could hear
them scramble up the hillside, mount
their horses and gallop away. Sam af-
terwards explained that he had brought
the candles along as side speculation,
and he also explained that he had ar
ranged a system of strings among the
bushes so that no one could approach
very close without meeting the obstruc-
ton and alarming him. It is needless to
state that we reached safe ground in due
time without further molestation."-
omaha Herald